William J. Lederer
| William Lederer | |
|---|---|
| Born |
March 31, 1912 New York City, U.S. |
| Died | December 5, 2009 (aged 97) Baltimore, Maryland, U.S. |
| Occupation | American author |
| Spouse | Ethel Hackett (1940-1965) (3 children) Corinne Lewis (1965-1976) |
| Children | W. Jonathan Lederer Brian J. H. Lederer Bruce Allen Lederer |
William Julius Lederer, Jr. (March 31, 1912 – December 5, 2009) was an American author and naval officer.
He was a US Naval Academy graduate in 1936. His first appointment was as the junior officer of the USS Tutuila, a river gunboat on the Yangtze River.
His best selling work, 1958's The Ugly American, was one of several novels co-written with Eugene Burdick. Disillusioned with the style and substance of America's diplomatic efforts in Southeast Asia, Lederer and Burdick openly sought to demonstrate their belief that American officials and civilians could make a substantial difference in Southeast Asian politics if they were willing to learn local languages, follow local customs and employ regional military tactics.
Yet, if American policy makers continued to ignore the logic behind these lessons, Southeast Asia would fall under Soviet or Chinese Communist influence. The book’s epilogue argues for the creation of “a small force of well-trained, well-chosen, hard-working and dedicated professionals” fluent in the local language — not unlike the Peace Corps, which John F. Kennedy proposed in 1960.
In A Nation of Sheep, Lederer identified intelligence failures in Asia. Having spent later years of his naval service as a public information officer, first at the Pentagon, then at Pearl Harbor Hawaii, where he was special assistant to Admiral Felix Stump, the U.S. Pacific Fleet Commander. In "Government by Misinformation" he investigates the sources he believes lead to American foreign policy:
Other works were intended to be light-hearted and humorous fantasies. His early works, All the Ship's at Sea and Ensign O'Toole and Me are both. A children's book, Timothy's Song, with illustrations by Edward Ardizzone, appeared in 1965.
William Lederer rose to the rank of Navy Captain.
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